Today, videos which may be downloaded or streamed from the web are becoming ever more available at an explosive rate. However, it seems that those providing these videos still expect the consumer to watch them on their PC as no suitable technology or methodology is being supplied to enable easy and convenient watching of these videos on the primary family entertainment TV.
Numerous paradigms have been offered in the past, and these are discussed as follows:
FIG. 1 shows a media server computer 101 connected to a TV 102, where the TV is the sole display for the computer. The user is expected to control the computer with a conventional keyboard 103 and mouse, these being either wired to the computer or alternately wireless as shown in FIG. 1. If the keyboard and mouse are wired to the computer, then the individual must be close to the computer and therefore may not comfortably control the computer from their couch or normal TV viewing chair. If the keyboard and mouse are wireless, then the user may control the computer from their couch, however they may find the text on the screen to be painfully small and difficult to see. More important is the fact that while they browse the web with the primary family TV acting as the media server display, the family may no longer view normal TV programming (cable or satellite TV) since the display is occupied with a web browser. Therefore, this paradigm is extremely similar to that offered in the mid-90s by Microsoft called “Web TV” which did not succeed, primarily because of this effect of interfering with normal family viewing on the primary TV.
FIG. 2 shows a newer development called a Wireless Media Player. The idea here is that video files may be located on a media server 201 located somewhere on the LAN, and these files are accessible to the Wireless Media Player 202 by way of a wireless connection 203. The Wireless Media Player is then connected directly to the TV 204 and controlled by a local hand-held remote control 205. The user may then, by way of the Wireless Media Player, peruse the directory structure on a media server via the LAN, choose a video file to be viewed, and then stream that video file through the Wireless Media Player to the TV. This limits the available videos to those previously saved somewhere on the LAN and precludes browsing for videos on the web via the Wireless Media Player. This paradigm requires videos to be able to be saved locally on the LAN, which is often not allowed these days for videos supplied by many web-based media providers due to DRM (Digital Rights Management) issues. The CODEC (compression/decompression) functions within the Wireless Media Player are not easily updatable as are CODECs which run as software on conventional PCs, and therefore Wireless Media Players are unable to play all popular video file types. Also, web-based media suppliers are often requiring that videos run in a proprietary software player that they supply which runs on a PC, also precluding the use of a Wireless Media Player.
FIG. 3 shows a Windows Media Center PC 301, one of the currently popular paradigms. This PC comes with a handheld remote control 302, however this is only useful for perusing previously saved files on PC 301 or for operating a software based DVR function where programs are recorded from the TV 303 and played back later. Any web browsing to locate and download or stream videos would be subject to limitations of the paradigm described in FIG. 1, and therefore the Windows Media Center PC does not fill all the requirements of a user who wishes to download and or stream web videos to their TV without leaving the comfort of their couch, and without disturbing their family's normal TV viewing while web videos are being located.
From the foregoing descriptions of existing paradigms, and from an examination of the various system components normally found in home entertainment centers supporting TV viewing, it is readily apparent that the opinion throughout the industry has been, and continues to be, that operation by a simple hand-held remote device is required for the remotely-controlled operation of any TV-related component. In spite of this, there is a growing trend for TV viewers to indulge in “multi-tasking” whereby they surf the web on their laptop computer while sitting on the couch with the family watching conventional (cable, satellite, or broadcast) TV programming. The present invention understands the unique opportunity supported by this trend and offers viewers the capability to use their laptop computer to control the play of video media, including web videos, on their TV, and to do so such that web media is located without disturbing their family's normal TV viewing.
It is known in the art to remotely control one or more computers by performing operations in a remote control window on a different computer. This functionality is primarily used by IT professionals for maintaining and updating large numbers of computers in an office environment, many of these remotely controlled computers being located in remote offices requiring accessing via the Internet. Programs supporting this kind of functionality include Microsoft's “Remote Desktop” and a program generically known in the industry as VNC. However, remote control of a computer by another computer has not been offered for the home environment to enable the unique controlling and viewing scenarios that are described herein.